


The Woods' Edge

by thatsoccercoach



Series: Which Door? (Fluffy Fraser Fics) [71]
Category: Outlander & Related Fandoms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 04:05:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17594291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatsoccercoach/pseuds/thatsoccercoach
Summary: The woods were deserted as far as could be seen though they all knew they weren’t alone at all. Old trees stood close together on a bed of pine needles and underbrush. It was dusk and the sky was darkening quickly. Jamie looked about in silence contemplatively before speaking.





	The Woods' Edge

                                                            

The woods were deserted as far as could be seen though they all knew they weren’t alone at all. Old trees stood close together on a bed of pine needles and underbrush. It was dusk and the sky was darkening quickly. Jamie looked about in silence contemplatively before speaking.

“All right then,” he said at last, resigned. “Ye’ll come, but only so far as the woods’ edge, wee Jamie. D’ye hear? And ye’ll take care of yer auntie.”

“I hear, Uncle Jamie,” his namesake replied.

Claire caught  _her_ Jamie’s wry glance before he disappeared into the trees, the falling night hiding him from sight.

“Auntie? Are ye ready then?” Wee Jamie asked her.

She shook her head.  _Wee_ Jamie was not so small anymore.

“I suppose. We ought to be careful like your uncle said though,” she reminded him. Personally she was more concerned about rolling her ankle on an exposed tree root or in a hole than she was of being caught in the game of laser tag. She was honestly surprised that Jamie was even “letting” her be a part of the game, she being pregnant and he with his overprotective streak running strong.

The family had gotten together, along with some friends, for young Jamie’s twelfth birthday. Jenny and Ian had planned a fun day for the whole lot of them. They’d rented equipment to play laser tag and the children had been playing all day. Ian had set one vest up (his vest) to have unlimited “lives” and ammunition and he’d sat in a chair on the front porch shooting everyone else for hours on end, much to the chagrin of anyone else in the game.

Maggie, Kat, and even Michael and Janet along with Faith and a very determined-to-keep-up Brianna had been playing all day long. Now, the youngest Frasers and Murrays had gone on to play other things and the adults had joined in the fun.

“Auntie Claire? Can ye watch out for yerself just for a bit? I’ll go’round the back edge of the woods, behind the house. Ye can go the other way,” he pointed in the different directions he planned for them to go.

“Uncle Jamie told me if we do that, if we cover ‘im, he’d ambush Da!” He glanced at her, tilting his head in a way that reminded Claire of Jenny. “I ken that Uncle said to take care of ye, but I dinna think he’d mind us going ‘round the house in different directions.”

“I think it will be fine,” she smiled reassuringly before realizing that her nephew probably couldn’t see her in the dark. “Let’s do it,” she affirmed, before starting to head around to her side of the home, through the wooded area.

She knew that her Jamie had been just as determined as wee Jamie and the other children, if not more, to take down Ian. During their last break (for birthday cake) his goal had been to switch the “invincible” vest Ian had been using all day with one of the others. She didn’t know if he’d been successful or not but she supposed they’d find out soon. She couldn’t help but smile to herself over how seriously two grown men were taking this game intended for the children.

“ _Sassenach_.” She heard the whisper from somewhere in the dark behind her and turned, waiting for her eyes to adjust.

“I thought you’d be close to the house,” she whispered back.

“Aye, weel, I thought you’d be wi’ young Jamie,” he teased. “Seems the lad canna be trusted in times like this. These times of dire need,” he chuckled.

“He went around the other side of the house so that we could cover for you on opposite sides. He said you’d discussed that plan. Why on  _earth_ is strategy so important here?” she scoffed, teasing him.

“I canna let Ian beat us!” he shot back.

“Well, go get him then. I’ll cover you from this side. I’m sure young Jamie is already on the other side of the house,” she nudged him away and he headed for the clearing.

He was about to step into the open when he turned back to her abruptly, scrambling over the bumpy ground with sure footing, reaching her, and putting his hands on her upper arms.

“I forgot. I love ye,” he blurted, then kissed her. “And if ye dinna mind, would ye meet me in the woods where we began after I defeat Ian?”

“Meet you in the-” she began.

“I’ve plans for ye, wife,” he said. She thought me may have tried to wink at her but it was difficult to tell in the dark.

* * *

Fraser triumphed over Murray that evening. As the buzzer on Ian’s vest sounded both Jamies scampered back toward the woods for cover. Claire stood near where her husband had left her before the raid. He found her easily as if she were a light and he was a moth, drawn to her helplessly.

He pulled her back into the deeper shadows of the trees. The silence was perfect. They found one another in the darkness, in the peace of the woods. Each touch was like a new discovery, all other senses heightened by the lack of sight.

His hands somehow touched her everywhere at once and nowhere at all, finally finding the way, reaching under the hem of her heavy sweatshirt. She shivered as goosebumps raised on her skin when his cold hands ghosted across her and her breath hitched.

And then the silence was broken.

“Auntie?” A pause. “Did I lose ye, Auntie?” A branch broke and she stifled a giggle in her husband’s shirt. “ _Christ_ , Uncle Jamie will kill me fer certain if I’ve lost ye!”

She tried to move away from her husband’s groping hands and he reluctantly released her.

“Ought I go to him?” she whispered in Jamie’s ear, her breath warm against him.

He growled softly in frustration. “Maybe he’ll go look elsewhere. Just,” he paused looking around. “Stay still.”

_He_ didn’t stay still. His hands went to work again until one of them found its way over her mouth, ensuring that she didn’t give away their position in the trees.

Some twenty minutes later an entire search party of children entered the woods yelling for them and they gave up their hiding place, Claire grabbing onto her husbands arm to steady her slightly wobbly knees.

“Where  _were_ you, Mama?” Brianna demanded. “Jamie looked for you for _ever_  and the little kids are all getting cranky,” she paused. “And that means Auntie Jenny is getting fratchety too.”

Both Claire and Jamie laughed at that.

“We’re here now, don’t worry,  _mo chridhe_ ,” chided Jamie gently. “We werena gone, only together.”


End file.
